Notebook (also called laptop) computers are lightweight personal computers, which are quickly gaining popularity. The popularity of the notebook computers has especially increased since their prices have been dropping steadily. One clear advantage of notebook computers is their ease of portability.
Notebook computers, however, fail to provide comparable performance to their larger siblings (i.e., desktop computers or workstations). One reason for this lower performance level is that notebook computers are harder to cool. For example, a large fan will draw too much power from the battery. Size is also an issue, which needs to be considered in portable applications. A large fan may be infeasible because it requires too much space. Furthermore, users frequently operate their notebook computers on their laps (hence, notebook computers are also called laptop computers). This use limits the amount of heat that may be generated or present in a notebook computer.
As more functionality is integrated into mobile computing platforms, the need to increase heat dissipation becomes increasingly important. Furthermore, users expect increasingly more computing power in mobile computing platforms, furthering the need for creative cooling solutions. Mobile computer designers have responded by implementing cooling solutions such as installing cooling fans in notebooks and reducing heat generation by, for example, reducing processor and chipset clock speeds, intermittently disabling unused components, and reducing power required by display devices, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or “flat panel” display (which generally results in dimmer screens that are hard to read).
Moreover, heat sinks, fans, and heat pipes are typically employed to dissipate heat from integrated circuits and other electronic components. Increases in heat generation are often accommodated by simply increasing the quantity or size of these heat dissipation elements. The relatively small size of a portable computing device, however, complicates heat dissipation by limiting airflow, crowding heat generating components, and reducing the space available for heat dissipation devices.
Accordingly, the current solutions fail to address the cooling requirements associated with utilizing faster components in notebook computers, which may dissipate a large amount of heat.